


15 Weddings and 2 Boyfriends

by author_abz



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M, Multi, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-14
Updated: 2019-08-14
Packaged: 2020-09-04 00:23:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20250304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/author_abz/pseuds/author_abz
Summary: Somehow Tyson has fifteen weddings to attend this summer, and his usual fake boyfriend Nate is a little too busy to help him out with all of them. Gabe offers to help.





	15 Weddings and 2 Boyfriends

**Author's Note:**

  * For [growlery](https://archiveofourown.org/users/growlery/gifts).

> Hello! I certainly tried for shenanigans and fun, but I may have missed the mark, and I'm sorry. Got some inspiration from 27 Dresses (you'll know the scene), and title inspo from 5 weddings and a funeral, which I have never seen.
> 
> Many thanks to my beta Rach; I hope I didn't ignore too much of her good advice. She's a winner for beta-ing under pressure.
> 
> Also shoutout to my usual beta who helped immensely as I struggled to write this, talking it out with me when I was pounding laptop keys in frustration. Unfortunately she won't read this because she is in potty training hell. We all wish her the best.

Tyson’s going through his mail, sorting through bills and financial statements and legal documents and wedding invitations. It’s something he does at the end of every season, because he always tries to keep it organized as it comes in, but a pile always forms, and he’s making several new piles. Normally legal documents are the largest pile just because they’re so many pages, but this year the wedding invitation pile is twice as high as the legal document pile. While he’s sorting, he keeps telling himself it’s because every invitation has what seems like three envelopes and twelve different pieces of paper slipped inside.

Once he’s done sorting, though, he knows his entire summer is planned out. His weekends and his weekdays and even what kind of travelling he’ll do. There are too many weddings he’s not sure how he’s going to physically attend them all and keep up with his fitness plan. Dating anyone over the summer also seems impossible. 

Tyson’s got a solution for that part, at least.

“Tyson, is it wedding season already?” Nate says as he answers the phone.

“Hello to you too,” Tyson replies, unable to even smile at what he’s sure Nate thinks is a very funny line.

“Hi. You’re calling because it’s wedding season, aren’t you?”

Gritting his teeth, Tyson tries to pretend he isn’t, that he has something else he needs to talk to Nate about, or something interesting to tell him at least. He comes up short; they talk so often there hasn’t been time for anything new to happen. “Maybe. What makes you think you’re man enough to be my stand-in date?”

Nate makes a series of exasperated and offended noises on the other end of the phone. “Tys! I’ve been your fake boyfriend for years - you _know_ I’m great at weddings _and _your family are expecting me. I know at least one of your cousins are getting married this year.”

Now Tyson is smiling and rolling his eyes. “Okay, yeah. I just went through the pile and there are a… a few.”

“Well just text me the schedule, dude. Don’t be weird about it.”

Tyson has to roll his eyes because literally everything about this is weird. His best friend pretends to be his boyfriend at weddings of his family and friends and they’ve done so for so many summers in a row that his family members are starting to ask when Nate’s gonna propose. Which is annoying, because _Tyson_ wants to propose - he’s romantic as fuck. But they’re not dating and Nate doesn’t take him to any of _his_ family’s weddings, and last year when they would slow dance together things felt …_real_ … in a way a fake date should never feel. 

“I’m not being weird, I just …” he trails off, looking at the cards laid out in front of him in chronological order.

“Do you not want me to go?” Nate’s voice is more serious, a little confused. “Do you… shit, do you have a boyfriend?” Tyson pauses before answering, distracted by the sadness he thought he heard in Nate’s voice, and Nate adds in his usual voice, “You should have told me, man - you know I’d be happy for you -”

“No,” Tyson cuts his off, “No, I don’t have a boyfriend, or a girlfriend. There’s just….” he counts out the invitations in front of him, “like fifteen weddings I’ve already RSVP-ed to,” he hears Nate swear on his side of the phone. “I don’t want to ruin your summer with weddings, and you might not be able to go to all of them.”

“Tyson.” Nate says, exasperated again. “Send me the schedule and I’ll tell you if I have any conflicts, okay? Weddings with you are fun.”

“You’re going to have a conflict - _I _have a conflict.” He says, annoyed, putting his phone on speakerphone and texting out the different dates and cities he has laid out in front of him in the notes app. “I RSVPed without checking anything, and now I have two weddings expecting me - _and my date_ \- on the same day.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Nope.” He pops the ‘p’ in the word and scowls down at his screen. “At least they’re both in the same city.”

Nate’s silent while Tyson keeps typing, and he realizes belatedly that he should probably include whose wedding is whose so Nate can decide whose weddings he actually wants to attend. He finishes typing the list and screenshots it without looking for typos or going back to add any names and sends the picture via text to Nate with a sigh. 

“You don’t have to go to all of them, I’ll -”

“Shut up,” Nate says over him, “I got your text, and we’ll both look at our calendars and decide who we like better and I’ll facetime you tomorrow.”

“Fine. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Love yooooooooouuuuuuu,” Nate sing-songs in an incredibly sappy voice.

“Bye!” He hangs up on him and pointedly doesn’t think about how much he’s smiling as he writes down all of his summer plans in a paper calendar he barely uses, then transferring all of his wedding invites into it. Most of the summer looks manageable - he doesn’t think he’ll get to have an island vacation that he was thinking of planning last minute, but there are a few weddings in some nice places, so he can probably stay a few extra days. Unfortunately, none of them are in the Caribbean, and his calendar is rough, but doable. He’s not sure about Nate, though, and when his phone rings, he’s sure it’s Nate about to break the news that he can’t go to any of them.

“Hey,” he says, still staring stubbornly at the Friday night where two different weddings are listed an hour apart.

“Hey, are we comparing travel plans? Or are these weddings? I can’t tell.” Gabe’s voice shocks him out of his train of thought.

“What?”

“The dates and cities you sent me.” Gabe sounds curious, not confused or mad, which helps Tyson focus. “Are we traveling somewhere, or are they weddings? I thought some looked familiar.”

“Oh, I meant to send that to Nate,” Tyson says, embarrassed, even though the whole team has seen pictures of him and Nate at weddings together before. They’ve attended teammate weddings together. He switches back to speaker and opens up his messages, going to make sure he sends it to Nate.

“You did. You sent it to me and Nate.”

Now that Tyson’s at his messages he sees he put the screenshot in a group chat with Nate and Gabe in it. “Oh. Sorry. Yeah, it’s just a list of weddings.”

“You have two on the same day.”

“I figured that out, thanks.”

“Did you RVSP to two weddings on the same day?”

“Yeah,” he sighs, frustrated. “I did, and I’m trying to figure out what to do, so I don’t need any lectures, thanks.”

“Oh,” He’s turned back to his calendar before he can realize Gabe’s tone of voice is off. “I can help.”

“What?” 

“I kind of thought that’s why you sent us the dates, so me, you, and Nate can figure it out.”

“Oh…” Tyson’s caught off guard by the earnestness in Gabe’s voice. “I mean, I sent the dates to Nate because he’s usually my date…” He can’t remember if Gabe knows about their fake-dating-for-weddings arrangement. 

“Do you think Nate’ll be able to make all of these?”

“No,” he answers honestly, “which is what I told Nate, but he wouldn’t listen. We’re gonna talk tomorrow and figure it out.”

“Well,” Gabe says after a pause, “I can help if Nate’s busy. If you need another fake boyfriend, I mean.”

“Um,” His brain feels stuck.

“If you want.”

“I - “ Tyson manages to clear his throat, “I have to look at the calendar. And Nate’s looking at his calendar. So you should look at your calendar.”

“Yeah, sure. Should I just text you guys?”

“No, we’re facetiming tomorrow, we should just do that.”

“Can we do a threeway facetime?”

Tyson’s brain takes the word ‘threeway’ and runs with it, so he has to think an extra few seconds about what he says next. “I’ve never tried, but it could work.” In the silence that follows his brain starts to picture a different threeway between Gabe and Nate and himself…

“We’ll figure something out.” Gabe replies, distracted, papers rustling in the background. 

“Yeah,” Tyson is purposefully walking into his kitchen and messing with the dishes in the sink to try and keep his mind grounded. 

“Talk to you later.”

“Later,” Tyson says, then hangs up. He sets the clean dishes onto the counter and makes his way back to the table so he can meticulously type out more details about each wedding into the note. In addition to the cities and the dates, Tyson includes who’s getting married, the time of day, and how many he RSVP-ed - there’s one he knows he put down just himself because Grubi and his fiancee invited him and Nate separately, otherwise they’re all for two. It’s pretty pointless information, but he’s trying to be thorough, and instead it’s making him panic to list out how much trouble he’s in.

Tyson goes back to his kitchen then, actually putting away dishes and absently wiping down the counters just for something to do, and his brain goes back to Gabe saying “threesome” and provides him with a daydream he didn’t know he had saved in his head.

It distracts him long enough that when he gets back to putting the rest of his mail where it goes, he’s surprised by a text from Nate asking where the updated list is. Nate texted him on their individual text thread, so Tyson replies with ‘_Gabe wants to help.’_ Then he remembers he does need to send the new note and screenshots it before Nate replies. _‘Gabe wants to help what?”_

_“I sent the wedding list to both of you,’_Tyson sends, then attaches the new notes and sends them, first to Nate, then to the threeway text thread that includes Gabe, not even pretending that the word popping into his head doesn’t immediately bring up an image of Nate and Gabe naked in front of him.

_‘Gabe wants to take my spot as wedding date?!’_ Nate sends, then immediately after, _‘I’m your fake boyfriend!!!!!!!1!!!1!!’_ and then, _“He has to prove he’s up to it_.’

Tyson only texts ‘_He’s gonna facetime with us_,’ and thumbs over to where Gabe had replied _‘Thanks!’_ to the wedding schedule and gives him a thumbs up.

Tyson knows he has enough stuff to do today, and he does his best to not dwell on thoughts of kissing Nate, or kissing Gabe, or _Nate kissing Gabe_, but only makes it to his post-workout shower before he lets it be all he thinks about.

\---

It takes them a while to figure out how to make the call go through, but once they do, the wedding dates sort neatly, especially when Tyson mentions that Nate should attend his family weddings because everyone assumes he and Nate are a couple already. He thinks they’ve already solved it in less than five minutes until Nate butts in loudly.

“Hey! Why does he get to go to all the fun ones? There’s not _that many_ I can’t make.”

Looking at the list of weddings Tyson realizes it’s true - almost all of the weddings with fellow NHL-ers he wrote down Gabe’s name, where every family wedding Nate’s listed, and there are more NHL weddings than family ones. “Oh, you’re going to all the family ones, I thought we were just splitting them up?”

“No,” Nate says irritably, “I’ve been your fake boyfriend for years, I can handle more than _that_.”

“I can be a good fake boyfriend,” Gabe says, offended.

Tyson says, “I know,” at the same time Nate scoffs and says, “Yeah, right.”

“Hey!” Gabe yells.

“It’s just a _date_, it’s not a _relationship_,” Tyson says, going back to their list of wedding dates and times wearily.

“I’m still your boyfriend when we go, though,” Nate says defensively. 

“For my family, yeah, but a lot of these guys don’t know who I’m dating.”

“I mean, do you tell everybody that you’re dating when you go? Aren’t you just friends for some weddings?” Gabs asks sincerely.

It’s a simple question, but Tyson feels like an idiot because _no_, they never go with the “just friends” angle - even the first wedding when Tyson had been dumped two weeks before the wedding in question, he and Nate told everyone they were dating. Nate was incredibly affectionate and kissed him on his cheeks a lot, but that was mostly to make Tyson feel better, not to pretend. Most of their kisses since then, though…

“If they ask we say we’re dating,” Nate says, “but usually nobody asks.” He shrugs, his tone light, and Tyson is incredibly impressed by his acting - it’s never that good in front of a camera. Even if most people at the weddings they attend didn’t ask if they were dating, they could probably figure it out, because Tyson can’t remember the last time they were at a wedding where they didn’t kiss on the dance floor or make out in the corner. 

“Right,” Tyson says, clearing his throat, “but you’re my friend, Gabe, so you can go as my friend for some of these.”

They get back to figuring out who’s going to which wedding, Nate joking that Gabe has to go as a friend first to prove himself worthy. Tyson rolls his eyes a lot at that - he needs a warm attractive body in a suit, and Gabe more than fits the bill. Several of the more fun weddings some hockey friends are having late in the summer Nate and Gabe agree that they’ll decide later who gets to go, and eventually they circle back to the two weddings on one Friday night.

“You said you’re free, Nate?” Gabe asks.

“Yeah, I’ll be in town anyway. But which one are you going to, Tys?”

Tyson shrugs. “I don’t know, they’ll both be fun, but I’m not really better friends with either of them.”

There’s silence for a moment before Gabe speaks up. “I mean, if we’re all available, I’ll go to one and Nate, you can go to one, and Tys can just - switch.”

“What?”

“What do you mean I’ll switch?”

“You can just go back and forth between the receptions. They’re not that far apart, right?”

Tyson rolls his eyes. “Just because they’re in the same city doesn’t mean I can just…” he’s still trying to wrap his brain around attending more than one wedding reception.

“No, I mean, aren’t the hotels they’re in like two blocks from each other?”Gabe asks, looking down at what must be his laptop. 

Tyson has his invitations nearby, but grabbing them he realizes he definitely didn’t tell him the exact location for each of the weddings. Shuffling through his invitations he asks, “How do you know?”

“I looked up their wedding website,” he says nonchalantly.

“C’mon, man, you’re making me look bad,” Nate chimes in, a wide grin on his face. Gabe grins back, and then Nate adds, “I’d call you a kiss-ass, but that’s _my _job.”

Tyson can feel his face slowly turning beet red, because what Nate said is absolutely true, and it’s not something he wants everyone to know - at least not when they’re only fake dating, so any sex they have doesn’t actually _count._ He has the right invitations in his hands, and he doesn’t even need to look up where the hotels are because he recognizes both of them, and they _are_ only a few blocks apart. “Okay, I guess we’re doing that. For the ones we haven’t decided we can figure that out at whichever one Gabe was invited to too.”

“Grubi’s.” Nate says, Gabe nodding in agreement.

“Right. I’ll book the hotels and send you info so you can get tickets and stuff.”

“Okay,” Nate and Gabe say.in unison.

“Okay - see you then,” Tyson says, hanging up. All of the stuff is in front of him to get to work getting rooms and flights, but his brain is stuck with the thought of Nate eating his ass while Gabe watches with that same approving smile on his face, and Tyson’s distracted for the rest of the day again.

\---

The first wedding on his calendar is a family one so Nate meets him in the hotel lobby a couple of hours before the wedding starts and from there everything goes normally. They check into the room and change, reacquainting themselves with their casual touches and fixing each other’s suits and standing so close together, as close as they usually stand when attending weddings together. Right before they head out, they stand in front of the mirror together, checking their ties and cuffs one last time, then Nate wraps his arms around Tyson’s waist, perching his chin on Tyson’s shoulder.

“You look great,” Nate mumbles into Tyson’s ear, like always, and Tyson waits for the kiss on the cheek that means they can go. There’s some hesitation, and Tyson turns his head to look at Nate, who’s leaning in for the kiss, which lands on Tyson’s lips and lingers. 

“You look good too, I like that suit,” Tyson says when they step apart, smiling and double checking their pockets for wallets.

“Thanks,” Nate says, needlessly straightening Tyson’s tie and smiling broadly. After a few seconds of silence he says, “I gotta text Gabe.”

“Why?” Tyson asks distractedly, making sure he has it down in his phone where they’re going, leading them out of the room.

“I have to tell him the first step of being a Tyson boyfriend is the clothes check.” When he looks up at him, his eyebrows quirked, Nate adds, “It’s important!”

“Why are you texting him?”

His phone already out, texting, Nate says, “I wanna make sure he knows what to do to be a good boyfriend.”

Tyson’s trying to think of a good response to that when they get into the elevator, Nate snaking an arm around Tyson as he finishes the text and slips his phone back into his pocket. _Oh well_, he thinks, _Nate is a really good fake boyfriend_. 

\---

The problem of course, is that Nate _is_ a really amazing fake boyfriend. Through the ceremony they hold hands, and during the pre-reception mingling Nate remembers all of his family’s names and they get to roll their eyes or wink when people ask about _their_ wedding. During the reception there’s dancing with Nate, the two of them getting complimented as a couple, and kissing, and more small talk and drinking and dancing and even more kissing. It’s actually pretty chaste for them, compared to all the other weddings they’ve attended, which would upset a drunker Tyson at a hockey player wedding, but it works out well for the first wedding of the year. Tyson has to keep reminding himself he’s allowed to touch Nate, and by the end of the night he’s not hesitating to lean forward to kiss him. 

At the end of the night Tyson’s family reminds them both how much they love them together and will see them at the next wedding as they say goodbye, while Nate keeps Tyson essentially in a bear hug at a table until the lights come back on, only stirring from the table for slow songs. Tyson figures Nate’s more tired than drunk as they make their way back to their hotel room, Nate still surrounding Tyson, his mouth at Tyson’s neck. Somewhere between taking off their jackets again and sitting down on the bed, they start making out, pulling each other closer again and again until an alarm goes off on Nate’s phone, and he groans, slumping down onto the bed. 

“You have an early flight tomorrow,” Tyson says, even though he doesn’t need to, since Nate’s already scowling at the ceiling. He stands back up and kisses Tyson again, slow and deep before heading to the bathroom, shedding clothes as he goes. 

The perennial disappointment that no, they’re not actually a couple, will come when Tyson climbs into one of the two beds in the room, not one, but he puts it off, seeing Nate’s phone on the bed lit up with a new text. Tyson types in Nate’s password to see the lock screen contents, and in the middle of a bunch of texts from his sister, Gabe’s most recent message reads, ‘_You’re not going to tell me another important thing for being a good Tyson-boyfriend is having sex, are you?’_

Tyson’s too tired, tipsy, and kiss-drunk to worry about Gabe thinking he has to have sex with Tyson, or Nate admitting how much wedding season sex they actually have, so he grins widely and types out a response. ‘_A gentleman never fucks and tells.’_

\---

Tyson only knows when Nate leaves the next morning because he hears him moving around the room, and he kisses him on the cheek as he leaves, saying, “I’ll text you… make sure Gabe does a good job next week.”

A few hours later when Tyson wakes up to his own alarm he sees that he does have a few texts from Nate - he got to the airport, boarded his plane, and apparently keeps thinking about what dorks they were on the dance floor. It makes Tyson smile through getting all of his stuff packed up and checking out of the hotel, running into some of his family in the lobby, who make sympathetic noises when he tells them Nate had to leave early. 

He gets a text from Gabe when he’s at the airport, who’s already planning for the wedding they’re attending together in a couple of days. It’s all scheduling and outfit clarifications, but after Tyson’s on his own plane, he starts to wonder what Nate’s been texting him, and if he’s going to be extra boyfriendy. He’s not sure if he wants Gabe to act as forcefully his boyfriend as Nate does or not. Most of his flight involves playing back last night’s wedding and wondering what it would be like if it was Gabe instead of Nate.

Meeting Gabe in the next wedding’s hotel lobby proves that Gabe is planning on being a perfect gentleman. He offers to carry a bag of Tyson’s, steps up to the reception desk first, and leads them both off to their room. He ends up aggressively taking his bag back from Gabe once they’re in their room and tells him to calm the fuck down, “Can you just be my friend Gabe please?”

Gabe’s face goes blank for a second, then he’s got his winning captain’s smile on. “I am your friend Gabe, Tyson.”

Tyson rolls his eyes and throws a pillow at his head. “Just shut the fuck up and get ready.”

They both chuckle and unpack enough of their bags to change and fix their hair. Gabe takes almost as long in front of the mirror with his hair as Tyson does, and he’s delighted he gets to make fun of him for it. Their hair done, they examine themselves in the bathroom mirror and then face each other to scrutinize each other’s hair. The way Gabe stands on his tiptoes and gets a good look at every angle of his hair makes Tyson threaten to mess up Gabe’s admittedly perfectly done hair, but all Gabe does is make a few more faces at him and declare, “You’re good.”

Out of the bathroom, putting their suit jackets on and messing with their cufflinks, Gabe makes Tyson stop in front of him again next to the door. Tyson’s face goes pink when he realizes Gabe is looking over his outfit to make sure he looks good, but he does hold still.

“Final check, right?” Gabe asks.

“Yeah,” Tyson says, reaching up to straighten Gabe’s tie, then turning them both towards the full length mirror. “Gotta make sure your viking beauty makes me look good,” he adds, looking at the pair of them in the mirror, and he’s torn between wondering if anyone will even look at him next to Gabe, and feeling incomplete because a final check with Nate involves kissing to jump start the wedding. He fidgets and unnecessarily fixes his own tie and makes sure his collar isn’t too tight.

Gabe turns back to face him, hands on his shoulders and says with a smile, “You look really good by yourself, I might just be distracting.”

Tyson’s cheeks flush from the compliment, but he says casually, “We can’t do anything about your big head now, c’mon.”

Gabe laughs and follows Tyson out of their room and off to the ceremony. The groom is a friend Tyson knows through hockey, although he never made it into the NHL, so they’re in a really nice location, but it’s a Thursday, and there aren’t enough guests for Tyson and Gabe to really lose themselves in a crowd. 

Instead, Gabe and Tyson become the life of the party once the ceremony is over, talking to everyone, eating, drinking, laughing, and dancing. They don’t act like boyfriends, but they also don’t _not_ act like boyfriends. There’s no kissing, they’re not particularly physically affectionate, and at least one of his friends asks Tyson where his “ball and chain” is, referring to Nate, so Gabe actually is able to act like Tyson’s friend. Except Gabe keeps his hand at the small of Tyson’s back when they’re just standing around in a circle with people talking, and he keeps offering to get Tyson drinks from the bar.

The reception doesn’t last a really long time compared to some other weddings Tyson has been to, so there isn’t enough time to get properly drunk, and they’re on the fun side of tipsy. The last song of the night is announced, and it’s a slow song, so Gabe grabs Tyson and pulls him onto the dance floor. For all the dancing that they’ve done tonight, none of it involved Gabe’s hands spread warmly across Tyson’s back, holding them closely together. Tyson’s focus catches on how their breathing has synced up, and how easy it is to stay close to Gabe, and how natural it feels.

They sway slowly together, moving closer and closer until they’re pressed entirely into each other’s space, heads bowed so they’re both resting their lips on each other’s necks. It feels distinctly boyfriend-y, and Tyson doesn’t care whether they agreed to act like boyfriends or not, because this feels _amazing_.

When they go back upstairs to their room, Gabe walks with his arm around slung around Tyson’s shoulders. “So,” Gabe says slowly when they’re back in the hotel room, “do I pass?”

Tyson’s still thinking about how good Gabe _still_ smells even through all the dancing and drinking and asks, “What?”

“Will Nate give me a passing grade?”

Tyson rolls his eyes, smiling. “I give you a passing grade. I’m drunk, so I’ll even give you an ‘A.’”

“So Nate’ll give me a ‘C’?”

He laughs, starting to take off his suit. “Yeah, probably.”

Gabe is smiling too, and they get ready for bed in a comfortable silence. On his way to the bathroom, Gabe stops in front of Tyson, both of them half undressed. “Hey, I had fun tonight.” He says, holding out his hand, and they clasp hands, then hug.

“Me too. I hope the next five are just as fun.”

Gabe’s smile widens at that before he disappears into the bathroom. They both finish getting ready for bed in companionable, hockey roommate type silence, but Tyson is thinking about the good time they had, and how much of that was Gabe and how much of that was Nate telling Gabe what to do to be a good wedding date.

In the morning they share a cab to the airport, then head to opposite sides of the airport for their different flights. Nate’s been texting Tyson on and off all morning, giving him updates on where he is in his travel plans and asking how the wedding went, how was Gabe as a date, did they miss him terribly? Tyson’s been ignoring them mostly, except to respond that yes, they’re awake, they’re dealing with their hangover just fine, and they are on the way to the airport. Once he’s sitting down in the VIP lounge near his gate, though, he finds a deserted corner and calls Nate.

“Hey.”

“Hey! I wish I had been there last night, yesterday was the _worst_, how was Gabe? At the wedding?” Nate asks, his casual tone wearing off quickly as he talks.

“He was… “ Tyson pauses, realizing last second it might not actually be good to admit to Nate that Gabe was a fantastic wedding date, and that he doesn’t have to worry about any of the other ceremonies or receptions coming up. “Good. Gabe did good, you can give him a good report card.”

“Oh, good.” There’s an awkward pause where Tyson has to remind himself that he’s not dating either of them and he hasn’t been cheating on Nate. But the uncomfortable silence feels like a stab in the gut anyway. “He didn’t really seem that excited to go, so I wanted to make sure he was a good date.”

Tyson smiles in spite of himself. “Yeah, he was a good date. More of a friend date though, we didn’t kiss and only slow danced once. He was a gentleman.”

He can hear Nate’s smirk and immediately improved mood through the phone. “Well it’s a good thing I’m going to the one this weekend, then, because no gentlemen are allowed.”

Tyson laughs out loud at that, and they start talking about when they’re getting to the resort near the wedding and what they’re going to do in the approximate day and a half of free time they have on some west coast beaches, and Tyson’s already getting excited about it. They planned a mini-vacation in with this wedding, and even if all they had planned were the massages, it would be worth it.

\---

On the plane, Tyson’s thoughts wander back towards Gabe as a wedding companion. It was nice, having the friend and perfect gentlemen Gabe on his arm for a whole night, but talking through the more exciting and rowdy wedding experiences with Nate makes him wonder if Gabe would be up for that too. He thinks he will, even if he isn’t going to obsessively check their wedding schedule to see when he can find out (two weeks - that’s how long it will be until he’s attending another wedding with Gabe - two weeks). He’s gotten drunk with Gabe in a group before, so he knows he’s a good time, but will he be like Nate is? Or will Gabe somehow be better?

When Tyson lands a stone’s throw from the ocean and gorgeous beaches, he stops thinking so much about Gabe, though. He checks his texts to see that Nate’s already landed and on his way to their hotel room, which makes Tyson’s heart do a little jump. He’s nervous and excited on his way to their resort hotel, telling himself that even if their mini-vacation stays completely platonic, it will be fun. 

It is fun, but things are decidedly _not _platonic, from the minute Nate greets Tyson with a kiss in their hotel room all the way until they’re making out on the dance floor of the reception and a groomsman yells at them to get a room. The only resort amenities they take advantage of are massages and an adults-only pool with a pool-adjacent bar. The whole weekend Tyson leans into Nate, and Nate doesn’t hold back any physical affection or kisses. They have sex after their massages, and after a fancy dinner, and Tyson lets himself pretend that it feels normal and natural because they are dating and they planned a romantic weekend on purpose. The wedding is a lot of fun and rowdy, Nate in full wedding date boyfriend mode, but it’s the whole weekend, and the fact they’re attending another wedding next weekend that turns Tyson’s usual sad awkward pining into outright admitting to himself that he’s in love with Nate and wants this to be real.

So for the time being, it is real. Between the hockey acquaintance’s wedding, checking out of their resort suite, and meeting members of his extended family for a different cousin’s wedding, Tyson treats Nate as if they _were_ dating. And the awkward thing he discovers that week is that essentially nothing changes between them. 

During the fairly conservative wedding of a cousin from his dad’s side of the family, Nate remains his boyfriend, and it’s astonishing how easily Nate switches from the incredibly out, overt displays of boyfriend-ness to the subtle show of boyfriending he uses at the family event. He’s still physically affectionate, and they do take the chance to slow dance very close together, but he sees confused looks on the faces of people he doesn’t know. Tyson’s never needed a closeted boyfriend experience before, but he can tell that Nate brought it by seeing people wonder ‘are they close friends, or are they… _together_?’

By the end of the night after people have already started leaving, Tyson slips up, kissing Nate affectionately on the cheek, which leads to Nate kissing him on the lips and on his jaw. Tyson’s not sure how many people saw it, but he doesn’t particularly care - he just wants to stop hiding how much he loves Nate, and after saying congratulations and goodnight to the couple, he drags Nate off to their hotel room, which has a single king bed. 

They’re kissing in the elevator and make it to their door without an indecent amount of buttons undone; it takes no time to get down to their undershirts and boxers once they’re inside. But then Nate slows down the kisses and steps back awkwardly, biting his lip.

“What?” Tyson asks.

“Do you wanna do this?” Nate asks hesitantly.

Tyson only just stops himself from rolling his eyes. “_Yes_, I am always up for this,” he says, walking forward to close the gap between them, but Nate takes another step back and he stops.

“I just - you don’t have to - I know you and Gabe had a really good time -”

“I have a really good time with you-”

“And Gabe is really fucking hot-”

“_You’re_ really hot -”

“So if you wanna - with Gabe - we - you don’t have to.” 

Tyson can only stare at Nate for a few seconds, his face closed off and pink, avoiding Tyson’s eyes, massive shoulders slumped. Then he walks forward slowly, grabbing Nate’s upper arms gently. “Do you want to?” he asks softly, and Nate meets his gaze.

“Yeah,” Nate answers, his voice only half there. “Yeah, I do.”

He doesn’t wait to see the way Nate’s face lights up or the hope that sparkles in Nate’s eyes; as soon as Nate had agreed, Tyson moved back into Nate’s space, kissing him slowly and thoroughly. 

The sex, which based on their ride upstairs should have been rushed and needy, is slow, sensual and as passionate as they have ever done it. They fall asleep cuddling, and Tyson tells himself that in the morning he’ll kiss Nate thoroughly in the daylight to prove he wasn’t lying, that he meant it. But when Tyson wakes up, Nate’s already in the shower, they’re running dangerously late, and he never gets the chance. 

Instead of dwelling exclusively on what those days and nights with Nate were like, or lingering over what their conversation about actually wanting it meant, Gabe keeps butting in both literally and figuratively. Gabe’s his date for the next two weddings before the split wedding Friday, and he texts pretty regularly, only half of the time about wedding stuff, and quite a few times Tyson has returned to his phone to respond to a text from Nate or his sister or his mom and ends up nearly texting Gabe instead, because he had texted in the meantime.

Even when Tyson’s trying to think over his conversation with Nate, though, he gets stuck a lot on what Nate said. He’ll hear him saying “Gabe’s really fucking hot,” and then his brain spends the next hour chronicaling every single perfect plane of Gabe’s face or his physique. Or he remembers Nate saying that they had a good time together, and Tyson gets distracted thinking about their slow dance and the fun, and whether or not the next two weddings will be a wilder, drunker, more fun version of that. Tyson can’t even focus on _why_ Nate brought it up at all, or the look on his face, because another part of him butts in to wonder, _What if he’s right?_

In the midst of his brain refusing to cooperate, Tyson does his best to focus on his workouts, returning phone calls, and answering texts. Nate’s still texting him like he was during his Nate exclusive two weeks, but Gabe’s texting him almost as often, and even with only one of them it’s hard to keep up. But before he knows it, he’s checking into yet another hotel where he sees Gabe hanging out in the lobby.

Once he gets the keys he walks over to Gabe, Tyson calls him an idiot for sitting out in public in a Canadian city, then walks away towards the elevator, letting Gabe jog to catch up to him. Tyson is trying not to smile too wide, but Gabe catches sight of his grin in the elevator and a broad smile crosses his face, and Tyson can’t stop himself from smiling back. 

Gabe knows a lot more people at this wedding, so even if he wasn’t a lot more casual from the start - starting with casual touches as they get ready, leaning into Tyson’s space when he makes fun of him - he would have been a lot more at ease when they got into the crowd. Either way, Gabe comes out early as one of the main, fun troublemakers at the reception - which is hard to do at an NHL-ers wedding, but Gabe manages it. Tyson can’t decide whether it’s a good or bad thing that the way Gabe cements his troublemaker status is acting increasingly inappropriately with Tyson, at least inappropriately according to the standards of athletes and their families, which is mainly a lot of affectionate touches, leaning on Tyson a lot, and a _lot_ of kissing considering they’ve never kissed anywhere else before.

Tyson spends half of the wedding reception laughing at Gabe, and the other half drinking and dancing with him. He’s having fun, and he leans into the boyfriend angle Gabe’s clearly playing with, and as the night goes on he only wants to kiss Gabe more and more. During one of the last slow dances of the night, Tyson and Gabe end up on the dance floor again, and Tyson can’t remember why it would be weird to kiss Gabe, or to keep kissing him all the way up to their hotel room. Or, rather, to their hotel room door, which Gabe presses Tyson against, and they kiss slowly, their hands groping far less than they had been earlier. Tyson isn’t the first to pull away.

When Gabe pulls back, Tyson keeps his eyes closed, then he feels him reach inside his inside jacket pocket to pull out the hotel key card. As he opens the door behind him he grabs onto his arm (which Tyson appreciates, because he _is_ pretty drunk), saying “This was really fun.”

“I told you,” Tyson says, pulling off his clothes as soon as he’s inside the door. “Weddings with me are _fun_.”

Gabe smiles and shakes his head at him. “You didn’t tell me that - Nate did.”

Tyson frowns at him, but Gabe just smiles and kisses him chastely on the lips before heading into the bathroom. Turning around Tyson feels a sudden gratitude there are two beds tonight. He’s not sure what’s happening, but he isn’t up for sharing a bed right now - at least not with Gabe. As he climbs under the covers, though, he thinks that if he’d thought about it half an hour ago, the only thing bringing up Nate would do would be to remind him how much he wants him there, because he wants Nate to have fun with him and Gabe. And if he were here and there was only one bed, they could absolutely all three climb in together.

Satisfied, Tyson falls asleep almost immediately.

\---

Gabe is there when Tyson wakes up, but he’s showered and dressed and already drinking coffee. The realization comes over Tyson that Gabe is his date for the next wedding too and he’s suddenly not even sure how he’s supposed to get out of bed with him there considering how awkward he feels about it. But Gabe notices that he’s awake and asks him if he wants any of the breakfast from downstairs. Tyson tells him “_Obviously,_” and before he realizes it, Gabe’s going downstairs to get him _breakfast_, which is annoyingly sincere and good and also gives Tyson the opportunity to rush into the bathroom with his clothes.

They end up having a really nice breakfast together in the room when Tyson’s out of the bathroom, and they pack their bags up, not in companionable silence, which Tyson would actually find extremely awkward, but in a chatty, domestic way. Talking about last night, how they slept, how they like the food, how Tyson’s managed to convince so many people he’d make a good wedding guest, how Gabe is allowed on planes when his head is so big. It keeps going as they check out and run into some people in the lobby, and as they share a car to the airport. 

Since there’s a full week between weddings, they’re flying off to different cities and their different responsibilities, and say goodbye after they go through security outside of an airport Starbucks. Tyson goes in for the hug first, but Gabe latches on when he does, and the hug lasts long enough they start to sway, faces pressed close into each other’s shoulders. Tyson pulls back first, feeling warm and dizzy. 

“See you soon,” he says, stepping back and adjusting his bag.

“See you soon,” Gabe repeats, smiling and waving as Tyson walks off toward his gate.

\---

The next weekend, Gabe’s flight is delayed so he doesn’t even get to the hotel until the ceremony has already started and Tyson ends up texting him throughout the service. He doesn’t feel guilty about it, the brides are more acquaintances he knows through his sister, and he’s sitting far back in the rows of people. Unlike some of the previous weddings, the ceremony and reception aren’t in a hotel ballroom or even an event hall, the wedding takes place in a field, and the reception is in a nearby barn, so even when Gabe is _there_, he gets turned around trying to get there.

Once the ceremony is over and everyone is waiting around for the reception to start, Tyson’s friends start making fun of him for pretending to have a date, “pretending” to give him directions, and telling him that it’s alright if he and Nate broke up, he could tell them. Tyson doesn’t bother disputing the ‘broke up with Nate’ story some family friends have concocted, since it would be just as complicated trying to explain when Gabe finally shows up. Plus, it turns out Gabe is _terrible_ at following directions, so Tyson has to concentrate so Gabe doesn’t somehow drive himself off a cliff.

When Gabe does arrive halfway through the meal, several people stage whisper that Tyson hired a model as a date, and some people simply stare in awe, whispering to each other ‘what a hunk.’ Tyson smiles wide when he sees Gabe at the gate, and is able to admire how good Gabe looks in his suit when he spots Tyson and strides toward him purposefully.

Gabe kisses him in greeting, and Tyson pulls him down into the open seat next to him. “Are you trying to make an entrance, Landesnerd?”

“I was trying to make it here on time and failed, Tys.”

Tyson wants to continue bantering casually with Gabe all through dinner, but instead he introduces Gabe to the rest of the table, and they start to have a great evening. There’s plenty of wine and artisanal beer to go around, and it’s fun to see Gabe, who was so winning in a group of rowdy athletes, try and work his charms with an incredibly different set of people who are dancing, drinking, and standing around chatting happily. It’s nice to have Gabe settled against his side, listening more than he talks, Tyson thinks, and is part of the reason Tyson keeps leading them to different groups of people talking instead of taking to the dance floor, wine in hand. 

Gabe manages to drag him onto the dance floor for several slow songs eventually, though, and holding each other, Tyson recognizes that his feelings for Gabe are glowing warm and bright again. He’s decided that acknowledging them are enough for right now, and if any kissing happens, he’s not going to say no, or pretend he’s not enjoying being Gabe’s boyfriend too. 

They spin slowly for a while, and Tyson can tell that Gabe’s brain is somewhere else, and Tyson lets himself look around, too. There aren’t that many couples on the dance floor, a lot of people using the slow dance as a chance to sit or refresh their drinks, but there are at least two groups of three people dancing all together in a small circle, and Tyson wonders if they’re doing a fun, drunk, ‘my friends and I are all single’ kind of dance together, but two of the women in one of the groups he knows are dating and he sees them kissing, so maybe not. 

At the end of this song another slow one starts, and the transition seems to jar Gabe back to the present. He’s smiling at Tyson, who smiles back, and they kiss, and somehow they’ve reached equilibrium again. For the rest of the reception Gabe still isn’t top of his game, but it feels more like he’s there as Tyson’s partner, rather than his friend, and he’s more comfortable, even though the physical affection and kisses haven’t changed that much.

Returning to their hotel after Tyson says goodbye to the newly married brides, Tyson kisses Gabe in the elevator on their way up to their room, unsure how far they’ll go. Once they finally get inside the room, Gabe pulls back, looking sheepish. 

“Tonight was fun,” he says, stepping back and taking off his jacket. “I didn’t think any of the weddings would be like that… but I liked it.”

“Like what?” Tyson asks, smiling as he takes off his own jacket and follows Gabe farther into the room.

Gabe shrugs. “Artsy? Hipster? A wedding where gay people outnumber straight people?”

“It was a gay wedding, Gabe.”

He smiles back at him. “I know, I just…” he trails off, undoing his tie. Tyson thinks the conversation is over and starts to undo his own tie and his shirt buttons, then Gabe speaks up again. “Do you think Nate would have had a good time?” 

Tyson’s smile takes over his face then, thinking about it. “Nate would have had a _great_ time,” he says with certainty. “But he couldn’t make it, and you could.”

It’s true; Gabe was slotted in for this wedding because Nate couldn’t come due to some of his contractual and training obligations. Nate actually knows a fair number of people at this wedding, and Tyson knows he would have turned every conversation from topics he finds boring or doesn’t understand to equally weird and absurd topics he and the person he’s talking to are somehow equally passionate about. Then he would have enjoyed the low key energy of the dance floor and the wine making Tyson’s cheeks pinker and pinker, allowing Nate the opportunity to get very handsy during any kind of dancing, and thanks to the queer room, kissed Tyson with abandon. That’s what Nate had done last year at one of the bridesmaid’s gay wedding, anyway. 

Gabe is closely watching Tyson’s expression as he, admittedly, is smiling wickedly as he remembers last year’s wedding. “So you weren’t just making me come because Nate knew he wouldn’t like it, but maybe you were trying to embarrass me?”

“What?” Tyson laughs. “I never _try_ to embarrass you, but you know I can never pass up an opportunity to make fun of you. It’s too much fun.” Gabe’s face is still scrunched up in a way Tyson is trying really hard not to compare to a toddler, so he adds instead, “Nate would have loved it, it was a timing thing - and I wouldn’t have made fun of you so much if you hadn’t gotten here late. I couldn’t prepare you.”

He steps forward to hold Gabe by the arms, smiling up at him, and Gabe manages a small sheepish smiles back. “A lot of people were asking about Nate, though. Assuming you guys were together even though we were kissing and stuff.”

“They didn’t ask me about Nate,” Tyson says, confused. Then he shrugs, “Maybe they think we’re not exclusive or something.” He doesn’t think too much about it as he gets in the shower or gets ready for bed - a king size for him and Gabe to share - and Gabe doesn’t bring it up. Tyson wants to browbeat Gabe into cuddling when he gets out of the shower, but he’s asleep by the time Gabe actually climbs into bed, and when he wakes up Gabe is gone.

\---

Tyson is much more nervous about the night with two weddings than he’s ever been before about any wedding - attending his ex’s wedding and the first wedding he attended with a guy (Nate) as his date pale in comparison. He’s texting Nate and Gabe constantly, and they’re humoring him, but that doesn’t make Tyson feel any more confident about their plan for him to attend two weddings at once. (It is _their_ plan, because Gabe came up with it and Nate is unconditionally backing him up on it, practically dictating when he thinks Tyson will be at each wedding.) They haven’t decided between them which wedding either of them is going to, and Tyson feels like there’s a value attached to who goes to which one. 

They’re both for NHL-ers, but Tyson was on a team with one of them way back in the day, even if they’re not close now, and the other one is more of an acquaintance, but he and his soon-to-be wife are known for having a good time, and they know Tyson’s good for that, too. In the end, Tyson doesn’t really choose consciously, but when Gabe and Nate both arrive about an hour after he does, he tells them which hotel room they’re going to, and he realizes the hotel room corresponds to which wedding he wants them attending. He’s not sure he wants to know why he wants Nate at the wedding of someone who watched him go through puberty, or why Gabe gets to go to the party wedding, so he doesn’t think about it. 

Both of the hotel rooms are in his name, so he meets Gabe in the lobby of the party wedding hotel, and as he gets the keys and goes upstairs with Gabe, passing several people he knows are wedding guests, Nate is blowing up his phone with texts so much he can’t even check his other texts. Gabe laughs as Tyson curses his phone, and opens the door for him, taking out his own phone to text Nate.

Tyson’s trying to decide whether he wants to put his stuff down here with Gabe’s or if he should take it over to Nate’s room when Gabe’s phone rings. Gabe doesn’t even have to say anything for Tyson to know who it is. “Tell him he can wait ten minutes.”

“Yeah, that’ll work,” Gabe says, smiling widely as Tyson goes to look and see how nice the bathroom is. “Hey,” he hears Gabe say.

“Hey, where are you?” Nate’s voice comes out on speakerphone 

“We just got to the hotel room,” Gabe says, and Tyson can hear him put his suitcase down.

“Well I’m still sitting in the lobby, so it’s the wrong hotel room.”

Tyson walks back to where Gabe is sitting on the king bed, not super impressed with the room, but loving the wide smile on Gabe’s face as he talks to Nate. “Looks like the right one to me, it’s got a Tyson in it.”

“I’m not waiting for ‘a Tyson,’” Nate says, and Tyson can hear his smug tone. “I’m waiting for the one and only Tyson Barrie.”

“Oh, him,” Gabe says, poking Tyson in the arm. “We can be there in like ten minutes, we just had to put our bags down.”

“Tell him I have the cufflinks,” Nate says, unperturbed. 

“Tell him yourself, you’re on speaker.” Gabe holds his phone out to Tyson, who takes it.

“Tys - I remembered to bring the cufflinks.”

“Which cufflinks?” Tyson asks, distracted by the way the sun plays in Gabe’s hair in front of him.

“The ones you thought you lost last year that were just in my bag,” Nate says, and _now _Tyson remembers. The simple, classy set of cufflinks he had gotten from his mom, who had gotten them from her dad, meaning they were trying to become an heirloom, and at a family wedding he wore them only to completely forget about them with Nate. 

“Right. Great, thanks,” he answers, looking down at Gabe who is looking up at him sweetly, benign curiosity on his face. 

“Did you remember my ridiculous bow-tie?” Nate asks.

“Ridiculous bow tie?” Gabe looks delighted as Tyson looks to his bag, thinking about whether he packed it or not.

“Yeah, I’ve got it,” he says, and looking down at Gabe’s glee-filled face he realizes he’s practically standing between his legs as he stands next to him.

Gabe doesn’t seem to notice as he takes his phone back. “We’ll be right there so I can see this _ridiculous bow tie_,” Gabe says and hangs up before Tyson can say anything else. He grabs Tyson’s bag and both keycards, heading out the door, motioning for Tyson to follow him. “Come on.”

When they get to the lobby Nate’s in, Tyson immediately forgives him for the absolute avalanche of texts he sent, because this hotel is completely packed, and it looks like there are at least four weddings going on today, judging by the signs. Gabe’s still carrying Tyson’s bag, and Tyson sees Nate eye it warily after they bro hug in greeting. He hangs back, though, as Nate and Tyson head up to the reception desk to check in, and only joins them again at the elevator. It’s pretty full, so it’s a weird ride where they pretend they don’t know each other until they get off on the right floor.

Tyson leads them all into the room and Gabe and Nate proceed to break down how the night will go as Tyson focuses on making sure his suit is still in acceptable condition and he didn’t forget anything important, like hair gel or toothpaste or lube. A cursory look tells Tyson it’s all there as he hangs up his suit and proceeds to unzip Nate’s bag to do the same, and he can feel their eyes on him. He goes to sit on the bed so they can talk at him while really talking to each other.

The plan is for Tyson to only go to one ceremony, the beginning of the reception and then switch, pretending that he and Gabe couldn’t make the second ceremony. Nate helpfully offers to muss up Tyson’s hair so that it looks like he and Gabe got distracted in their hotel room, and even though Gabe agrees, Tyson vetoes the idea, protecting his head from any hair mussing (at least mussing that isn’t _earned_, he thinks). After that, they reason Tyson should try and be there for the major reception events - majority of the meal, absolutely the cake, speeches, and the garter toss. 

Several times they ask Tyson which he would prefer and he can only shrug, but it doesn’t seem to matter - from the sounds of it Gabe and Nate have figured out all of the details between themselves. He’s honestly fine with it, if he has to think too much about it he’ll lose his nerve and he’s way too far in for that.

Even when Tyson reminds them that they have to get ready, Nate and Gabe are still chatting, and in addition to Nate making sure they look okay together, and that everything is set on his suit, Gabe looks them both up and down several times, especially after he loses it at Nate’s bow tie that he can’t even believe Nate would put on, let alone is wearing in public. Tyson rolls his eyes at that, because Nate has an inside joke with himself about it, and he knows that approximately ten minutes into the reception Nate will have taken off the bow tie, leaving his shirt open at the top two buttons.

After final checks at the mirror with Nate and Gabe, Gabe verifies that Nate’s phone is charged, and heads off to get ready a block away.

Nate takes Tyson’s hand, pulling him into him, and Tyson’s anxiety about tonight shrinks down to the size of a pea, and he can breathe as he goes with Nate to his friends wedding ceremony. Everything feels normal - the easy touches and small kisses with Nate, wandering out of a small hall to a large ballroom a floor up, chatting happily with people. Then, just as Tyson’s halfway through his first glass of wine Nate pulls him away from the group of people they’ve been talking to and leads him out into the hallway.

“Hey, it’s time to go,” he says, taking his phone out of his pocket.

“Already?”

“Gabe texted, almost everyone’s in the reception hall over there, he thinks they’re going to introduce the bride and groom soon.”

Tyson peers at Nate’s phone, open to his text messages; he hadn’t even realized Nate had been texting with him this whole time. “Oh, okay.”

He looks around for where to put his unfinished wine glass down, and Nate takes it from him. “This is gonna be fun,” he says, kissing him soundly before pushing him towards the exit.

Annoyingly, Tyson thinks later, Nate is entirely right. And so is Gabe, who tells him the same thing forty-five minutes later, sending him back to Nate for the first time, also sending him off with a kiss. Tyson doesn’t think he’ll ever be able to tell them that it’s fun - their heads are too big as it is.

Tyson’s not sure how they do it, how _he _does it, but he flits from reception to reception, talking with everyone, eating delicious food, having about four slices of cake, drinking wine and shots and beer, and dancing with Nate, dancing with Gabe, he even manages a dance with one of the brides and one of the grooms. Mostly he feels happy, being held and managed by Nate, then Gabe, then Nate again; they hand him drinks, pull him to the dancefloor, kiss him, and only smirk at him when he puts his hands on their butts. The only bad part is that literally every time their kissing and dancing get really intense and probably too intimate for public, Nate and Gabe pull away and head out into the hallway to kiss him goodbye for the next half hour or so.

On one of his walks between hotels he realizes it’s really a smart thing to do since it makes it look like he and either Nate or Gabe are leaving the dancefloor to get even more intimate, but it’s something else he finds annoying. He _wants_ to disappear where other wedding guests can’t see to do something dirty; he’s done it with Nate at least half a dozen times, and he wants to have that wedding experience with Gabe, too. Instead, Gabe ends up practically shoving him back out onto the street when the reception has just devolved into dancing and drinking games, and when he gets to Nate he’s immediately embraced in his arms, and they’re saying goodbye to the bride and groom.

The reception doesn’t _end_ after that, but it does fall apart pretty rapidly. Tyson and Nate go around telling everyone goodnight and goodbye, Tyson tucked securely against Nate to make sure he doesn’t fall over and just because it feels nice. Auto-pilot’s kicked in for Tyson, and with Nate’s arms securely around him, he starts walking in the direction of the elevator bay that takes them up higher, towards their room. Nate leads Tyson away, though, back outside, and they’re walking over to the party wedding together. It doesn’t occur to Tyson that they shouldn’t be walking together holding hands, let alone leaning against each other and kissing off and on, but Nate kisses him in the lobby and pushes him towards the general direction of the stairs.

He finds Gabe soon enough, and it takes a little longer to get back into the party swing of things until Gabe puts another shot down in front of him and drags him back to the dancefloor, rewarding him with another kiss. They dance and kiss and challenge some friends to a dance off, but Tyson’s starting to notice that the crowd is thinning out, and the bride is sitting at the head table with one of her bridesmaids, just chatting with their shoes off. 

Tyson retrieves Gabe’s phone from his pants pocket, not remembering where his own phone is, to check the time, and there isn’t another text message from Nate, but Gabe takes the hint anyway. They gather up their jackets and party favors and head off into the hotel, and Tyson can’t remember if it’s the right way or not. Before they find the correct elevator, Nate finds them, and they figure out the way back upstairs together. 

“Gotta make sure you get to bed okay,” Nate says, walking on the other side of Tyson. “You drank a lot more here.”

“We didn’t drink that much,” Gabe protests, even as his arm is stretched across Tyson to hold onto Nate’s shoulder so they’re all steady.

Nate just nods and they make their way slowly to the correct hotel room door. Fumbling with the key, Tyson feels immediate uncertainty and doesn’t know how any one of the three are going to say goodnight. He wants to go inside and cuddle with Gabe, to make out more with Gabe, to cross the threshold they’ve been toying with all summer. But _Nate_, Tyson thinks, it’s only been two weeks and it feels like forever since he’s had Nate alone in his bed, and he wants to go with him so much even just deciding to go gets him excited.

With the hotel room’s door open now, his brain helpfully replies that he left his bag in Nate’s room. “Well my stuff is at the other hotel,” he says, unsure of his voice.

“Mine too,” Nate says, looking directly at Gabe. 

Gabe gives a small smile, slightly shrugging his shoulders, but Tyson still thinks he’s disappointed. Technically Tyson is disappointed too, but he’ll probably always be disappointed choosing between Nate and Gabe.He reaches forward and gives Gabe a giant hug, kissing him chastely on his jaw, letting Gabe squeeze him back. Then Nate steps up to Gabe and they hug, too. Their hug lasts longer than Tyson’s did, and they start to sway in place, eyes screwed shut, faces in each other’s necks. Tyson can’t tell if they’re saying anything or just breathing in each other’s scents.

They say goodnight and agree they’ll see Gabe in the morning and Tyson and Nate walk back to the other hotel slowly. They don’t hold hands until they’re outside, and Nate doesn’t put his arm back around Tyson until they’re inside the hotel. Some kisses happen in the elevator, and they get into their room, no problem of stopping to push each other up against the door. Inside, with the giant king bed waiting for them, Tyson and Nate are able to link back together in a way that has always made the sex they have fantastic.

\---

Tyson isn’t sure if it’s just because Gabe has already attended so many weddings with him that makes their next wedding go so smoothly, or if it’s because somehow the two wedding night broke a kind of damn between them. Either way, hanging out with Gabe, his pseudo-boyfriend, is incredibly easy the next wedding he has on the schedule. All of Tyson’s friends love him, Gabe knows what his drink of choice is, and they do a lot more dancing. _A lot_ more dancing. 

He wasn’t anticipating a night where Gabe would be extremely kiss friendly and handsy as well as a wonderful wedding guest, but that’s what’s happening. The wedding guests make a large group, so when most of the evening is over and the majority of the guests are drunk, no one notices Tyson and Gabe making out in a corner, groping each other.

In the middle of getting another drink from the bar, a parent of one of the bridesmaids or groomsmen comes up to Tyson and says a quick goodbye, and even though he can’t remember whether he knows her or not, he wishes her goodnight. After that, Tyson grabs Gabe and hauls him off the dance floor, understanding that it’s not too early to leave and they can say their goodbyes _now_ to go upstairs in approximately _five minutes_.

The goodbyes take even less time than Tyson anticipated, and then he and Gabe are pushing up against the door of their hotel room, kissing and undoing shirts and belt buckles. They manage to open the door and get inside where they can drop all the items of clothing they’ve taken off and start throwing off all the layers they haven’t gotten to yet. 

Gabe ends up sprawled on his back in the middle of the bed in only his boxers with Tyson following his lips as he lays down because he _can’t stop kissing him_. Tyson has a few random items of clothing still on besides his boxer briefs, and Gabe stops him to take them off, slowly and sensually. 

Kneeling above him, Tyson can feel his love for Gabe well up and threaten to spill over just by looking at how beautiful he is. There’s also a look in his eyes that pulls Tyson down - he _wants_ Tyson, and it makes Tyson shiver in anticipation. Before Tyson moves forward again, he feels cold starting in his gut, spreading out to his whole body.

“I can’t-” he hears himself saying, getting off the bed and backing away. “I can’t do this.” His stomach has dropped out of his body, and he’s shivering from the sudden cold, the sudden realization, _he can’t do this_. 

“Sorry,” Gabe says, sitting up, but Tyson waves a hand to stop him, then buries his face in his hands. 

“No, you’re - you’re _perfect_,” Tyson takes a deep breath, trying to look Gabe straight in the face, his eyes tearing up. “And I want to, I _really really want to_, but I - “ He has to take a deep breath and turn his back to Gabe because he feels so stupid. “I’m in love with Nate?” he blurts out to the wall, then turns around and says the rest in a rush.

“And it’s not like we’re together, we’re just fake boyfriends who have sex after some weddings, and it’s not like I was in love with him at the first wedding, I just … fell for him after a while.” He takes another deep breath and closes his eyes so he won’t have to see Gabe’s face as he goes on. “And then we started,” he waves his hand between them, “and I started getting the same feelings for _you_, and it’s not like - I’m not dating _either_ of you,” he says, more disappointment and disgust coming out than he meant to. “So it doesn’t matter,” he angrily wipes at a tear, still not looking at Gabe, “but I just feel like I’m - like I’m betraying Nate, because he came first, and…” he trails off, not really wanting to tell Gabe about the mini vacation or how long they’ve been having sex, or how his family assuming he and Nate will get engaged any day now feels like it means something.

More angry tears make their way down his cheeks and he manages to look at Gabe, who’s sitting at the edge of the bed facing Tyson, his face sad and understanding. The bastard.

“It’s okay,” Gabe says in a low voice. He looks at the carpet, “I - “ he clears his throat. “Nate’s easy to love.” That makes Tyson tear up again, and he has to look away from Gabe until he’s standing right in front of him, wiping the tears off his face. “You’re easy to love too. I know he loves you.”

Tyson shakes his head, rolling his eyes, but Gabe holds his face still and kisses him softly. He kisses him back, reaching a hand out to Gabe’s shoulder and squeezing lightly.

Gabe pulls back and Tyson can feel his shoulders slump. “I really wanted to, too,” he says, his voice husky, and there’s a moment where Tyson thinks he’s going to kiss him again, and they _will_, but it passes. “I get it, though. You love Nate, and Nate loves you, and it’s okay.”

His face is so sad Tyson leans into the hug before he even realizes Gabe is offering one, and they hold each other, still just in their boxers, for a minute, swaying where they stand. “We’re still cuddling tonight, though,” Tyson says into Gabe’s shoulder.

It makes Gabe laugh and Tyson gives him an extra squeeze before letting go. “Of course,” he says, smiling, wetness at the corner of his eyes.

\---

Things are awkward the next morning with Gabe, but much less awkward than it could have been, especially if they had actually had sex that went badly, or if one of them was into it and the other one wasn’t. Instead, the cuddling went well, and they’re friendly through breakfast and packing up, just without the easiness of before.

Tyson wants to forget that he blurted all of his feelings out to Gabe, and texts with Nate and Gabe as normally as he was before, and while that works with Nate, it’s not working with Gabe. He’ll text Gabe individually and Gabe will respond in the group text between Gabe, Nate, and Tyson, no matter what the original text was about. It’s annoying and slows down the conversation as one or both of them end up filling in Nate on the context, but a few times adding Nate to the conversation works out really well either because they’re much funnier together, or because he’s thought of something both he and Gabe forgot about. 

Even though he’s pretty sure Gabe is up to something, Tyson doesn’t mind as much as he thought he would. It’s nice just to see Gabe and Nate texting back and forth with each other when he finishes workouts or wakes up from a nap, or in real time. He chimes in a lot, too, but Gabe seems really intent on planning out the next wedding, Grubi’s, which all three of them are attending, even though Tyson tells him repeatedly that none of them are attending as anyone else’s date. If Tyson could see Gabe, he thinks he might be rolling his eyes, but through text all he can tell is that Gabe ignores him when he says this.

When the next weekend rolls around and Tyson checks into his hotel room by himself it feels weird until he gets a text from Nate telling him that he’s almost there, and when he gets to his own room he gets another from Gabe saying he just landed. Nate shows up at Tyson’s hotel door once he’s ready, and he pushes Tyson in front of the mirror for a last check before they go down together. Gabe meets them in the large hallway outside where the ceremony is taking place, and he ushers both Nate and Tyson inside to seats he apparently already picked out, making Tyson sit between Gabe and Nate.

Nate surreptitiously takes Tyson’s hand like he does at every wedding ceremony, and then Gabe nonchalantly puts his arm around Tyson’s shoulders, his hand on Nate’s shoulder. They’re both smiling, or Tyson might think there was some secret competition going on between them, but he can’t see Nate and Gabe fighting over anything off the ice. Being connected to both Nate and Gabe makes the ceremony even more lovely than it was; the three of them practically breathing in sync. The only reason they don’t all end up in each other’s laps by the end of the ceremony is that they’re sitting on individual chairs instead of pews. Luckily they’re not in a church, either, because with the heat of Gabe and Nate surrounding him, he can’t stop his mind from coming up with extremely inappropriate daydreams. 

Through the receiving line, waiting until they can head into the ballroom for the reception, Nate hasn’t let go of Tyson’s hand, but Gabe has taken to slumping over Nate’s shoulders as they talk to people. Probably only because Tyson is standing so close to Nate and can feel his hand squeeze, Tyson sees the flush on Nate’s face as he gets flustered by the continual closeness of Gabe. _He’s easy to love, too_, Tyson thinks, watching Gabe flirt with several of the wedding guests around them, his arm slung securely around Nate.

They manage to be seated at the same table, all three of them, and based on how Gabe’s smile hasn’t faded, and how casually he’s been acting all afternoon, Tyson wonders if he might have something to do with it. When three seemingly single women join them at their table, though, Tyson decides to throw out that idea. It just throws him off, how different Gabe is tonight from a week ago when things had been so awkward between them - somehow the awkwardness vanished and he’s flirty and as handsome as ever. The only thing awkward is how Nate and Tyson keep hesitating to do the normal couple-y things they would normally do because Gabe’s right there, smiling broadly, practically encouraging them to make out in front of all their teammates.

When the cake is served it’s so delicious awkwardness gets thrown out the window, Tyson trying to eat any remaining cake or frosting off of Nate and Gabe’s plates. Nate lets him, even as they duel with their forks a bit for the pieces with the most cream on them, but when Tyson goes for the whipped icing Gabe’s left on his plate, Gabe lifts the plate up over his head.

“Hey!” Tyson says, offended, reaching his fork up towards the plate.

“I’m not done,” Gabe says, laughing, filling his own fork with frosting and eating it, or trying to, but Tyson pulls his arm down towards his own mouth, ending with a huge smear of icing across Tyson’s cheek. Then, in a moment of distraction, Nate takes his own fork and takes a huge glob of icing off of Gabe’s plate, managing to shove it into his mouth just as Gabe catches sight of him. 

Gabe’s arms are entangled awkwardly with Tyson’s, and he licks the icing off of Tyson’s cheek all the way over to the corner of his mouth, where he kisses him as sensually as he’d licked him. Then he stands up abruptly, his arms untangled from Tyson’s, his plate back on the table, and he leans over to Nate, where there’s still icing on his lips and at the corner of his mouth, and Gabe kisses Nate where the icing is, softly and slowly. Tyson’s almost positive he sees Nate kiss him back.

Suddenly back in his own seat with his own plate in front of him, Gabe says in what Tyson guesses is supposed to be a light voice, “I wasn’t done with my frosting.” 

He proceeds to load up his fork with the remaining icing on his plate and shove it all awkwardly into his mouth, their entire table watching him. Jost and JT happen to walk by at that moment, and Jost calls out loud enough so most of the surrounding tables can hear, “Hey, Captain’s giving out kisses!”

Mouth full, Gabe only manages to glare at him, giving him the finger with both of his hands. Tyson takes the awkward moment of opportunity to go and get another drink for him and Nate and Gabe. He’s trying to pretend he’s never thought about Nate and Gabe kissing, and trying to ignore the explosion of happiness that watching them kiss had given him. The line at the bar takes ages, and once he’s finally back to their table the awkwardness seems to have dissipated. 

He’s barely taken a drink from his glass when the music on the speakers makes him want to yell out, drop everything, and dash to the dance floor. Since he’s an adult, he sets his drink down and looks over at Gabe and Nate, who he was going to ask to dance with him, but both of them are already on their feet, and looking between them, he feels the awkwardness return in full force.

“Let’s dance,” Gabe says after a second of the three of them staring at each other, taking both Nate and Tyson’s hands, dragging them onto the dance floor.

They stand around awkwardly, not even swaying, when Nate says, “I’ve never danced with two people at the same time, I don’t know what to do.”

Tyson and Gabe both laugh at that, which makes Nate smile and chuckle, and then they move together almost like a group hug after one of them scored a goal. Tyson and Gabe both have an arm around Nate’s back, Nate has an arm around both Tyson and Gabe, and Tyson and Gabe put their free arm around each other, and they’re a lot closer together than Tyson thought they would be like this, all breathing each other’s air and feeling every nervous twitch or deep breath the others take. 

The song they rushed onto the floor for is one of Tyson’s favorites, and luckily it’s a standard slow song for weddings, queer or otherwise, and Tyson always makes his date go and dance with him for its duration. Tyson might feel bad, but he’s laying his head on Nate’s shoulder to maybe help with his nerves, and he’s rubbing circles in Gabe’s back, soothing him for whatever he must be steeling himself for. If Tyson only gets the best of both dates for one song, it’s more than enough for him.

“Y’know at that artsy wedding?” Gabe starts, quiet enough only his two dance partners can hear him.

“Tina’s gay wedding? Yes,” Tyson answers.

“Wish I could’ve gone,” Nate says, making Tyson smirk up at Gabe. 

“Well… one of the people there - I don’t know who - she said it was nice Tyson had another boyfriend.”

“We broke up a lot this summer,” Nate says, quirking his eyebrows playfully at Tyson, who ignores him.

“She didn’t think you broke up, though,” Gabe continues, pressing even closer to them. “She said it like Tyson had added on a boyfriend … that we were boyfriends at the same time you guys were.”

Tyson’s not sure why this matters, but he squeezes Gabe a little. “Okay, well,” he takes a deep breath, “I do have feelings for both of you, so maybe that’s why they thought that.”

Their swaying around the dance floor has stopped, and Tyson resolutely isn’t looking at Nate, even though he knows he must be looking at him right now. Instead he tries to bury his face in Nate’s shoulder and fails.

“Nate,” Gabe says, “I know you like Tyson - a lot.” Even coming out of Gabe’s mouth in the low serious voice it doesn’t sound very impressive, and Tyson doesn’t believe it for a second.

“You really like him too,” Nate says, and Tyson whips his head up to look at him. “I know you like him.”

Gabe nods, but he doesn’t look at Tyson, who is watching him closely, instead he just stares at Nate with those same sad, understanding eyes. “I really like you,” he says, and after the briefest of pauses, he leans forward to kiss Nate slowly.

Tyson’s watching for an excruciating and invigorating number of heartbeats, trying to figure out what’s going on - maybe this is their way of bypassing Tyson so neither of them get him, they just get each other. But the way Gabe’s fingers are clutched in his suit jacket, he doesn’t believe that. 

“Gabe,” Nate’s voice registers before anyone else’s, and he says, “I like you, but…” Nate trails off, and Tyson can’t blame him, contact with Gabe’s lips has that effect on people. Tyson turns to kiss him, aiming for his cheek, but Nate moves his head last second and they’re kissing too. 

“I want you both to be my boyfriends,” Gabe says, practically whining as they pull back from each other. “And I want to _be_ a great boyfriend for both of you.

Nate just looks incredulously at Gabe, opening and closing his mouth. Tyson takes the opportunity to kiss Nate on a side of his face, near the corner of his mouth, and Nate turns to him. He sees the question on his face and answers it. “I want to be both of your boyfriends, too, if you’ll have me.”

“I’ll always have you,” Nate says almost on instinct, and it seems to unblock him. “Okay, but…” he leans forward and kisses Gabe again, a small smile on his face. “How does that work?”

Seeing them kiss again gives Tyson a bout of happiness, then he tells Nate, “We’re all each other’s boyfriends - we get to be us, and kiss and do more fun stuff.” Gabe reaches his hand down to Tyson’s butt for a pinch just then as if to illustrate what kind of “fun stuff” he was talking about, and Tyson tries not to jump _or_ roll his eyes. 

Nate still looks skeptical. “Isn’t it more complicated than that?”

Gabe just shrugs, “Probably, but we can work it out. We can work out anything.”

The certainty in Gabe’s voice makes Tyson want to kiss him, so he does, and then he turns to Nate, practically beaming, and kisses him too.

\---

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed!!! Also I cannot tell you how weird it was to see pictures of Tyson at literal weddings/parties as I wrote this fic. He's extremely attractive in said photos, but very weird timing for me.
> 
> Also polyamory is more complicated than it seems at the end of this fic, so I wanted to be like... yeah, they'll do a lot more talking and researching later. Now is the time for kisses!
> 
> I made Grubi the only one who was named in having a wedding because I figured that a teammate would be the best bet for an everyone invite, and I love his girlfriend the most, she's fantastic. He absolutely should marry her. (Even though they, like basically everyone else in this fic, would not have hotel ballroom weddings, but fancy outdoor ones. So... my bad.)
> 
> This is also my first Nate/Tys/Gabe, (sort of), please be gentle, and please don't hate my Nate/Tyson bias too much.


End file.
